What are the Seasons?

The concept of dividing the year into four seasons is reexamined to appraise critically the relative merit of two commonly used definitions of the seasons: 1) the astronomical definition; and 2) the meteorological breakdown into four three-month periods. These are compared with the definition of winter as the coldest season, summer as the warmest season, and spring and autumn as the transition seasons. Observational data on surface temperatures over the entire globe and, in particular, over the United States, are used to determine what the seasons should be. Presented here is an analysis of the amplitude, and phase of and percentage variance explained by the first harmonic of solar radiation at the top of the atmosphere and surface temperatures.